Constructed of plywood and color-changing lights programmed to interact with people, the 13-foot-tall “Wave Wall” is one part sculpture, one part video game.

The piece will be featured in “Routing: An Interactive Media Experience,” a one-day event at the Peoria Riverfront Museum on May 3 showcasing the work of interactive media majors at Bradley University.

On Tuesday afternoon the “Wave Wall” still existed only in the minds of assistant professor Matt Nelson and the 10 seniors working on the project. The lights hung from the ceiling of a classroom at Bradley as students created a computer program to make the wall of lights react to people in several ways. Lights will mimic the color of clothing worn by people walking under the wave, and it will also sense the movements of participants rocking on a surfboard-like platform at the wave’s base as part of a giant, interactive video game. The object of the game is to avoid the green lights, and the computer will keep score, allowing participants to progress to different levels in the game. The wall also includes sound.

“You’ll hear splashing and voice prompts counting out your score,” said Brittany Rosenberg who, along with fellow student Connor Eck, is charged with creating the sound.

The ambitious project is just one portion of the show. Other displays will highlight the work of about 160 Bradley students majoring in interactive media, a complex discipline in which “text, audio, video, illustration, photography and animation are assembled in a non-linear, interactive format for delivery on the Internet, mobile networks, on digital media, or within informational kiosks and other presentation formats,” according to the course description on the Bradley website.

“Our students go on to work for gaming companies, animation companies like Disney and DreamWorks. They can do TV commercials, they can work for communication departments in Fortune 500 companies, or for agencies that do public relations and advertising,” said James Ferolo, chairman of the interactive media department.

It’s a fairly new major, and one that is constantly evolving. Since the public has only a vague concept of what interactive media is, Ferolo and other faculty members in the department thought doing the annual year-end student show at the Peoria Riverfront Museum would be a great opportunity to educate the public. It’s also stretching students to do high quality, professional work.

“We’re getting them to understand what it takes to get something out to the public, and this project requires a level of refinement that pushes the students to their edge,” said Ferolo.

Every faculty member in the department is involved in the project, which has multiple components. In the Riverfront Museum’s cinema, student work will be projected onto the big screen — seeing their work in a high quality large format is an exciting prospect for students and staff. There will also be a pair of talks, beginning at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., by Bradley faculty about the latest trends and research in interactive media. And then there is the interactive part of the event, which will be especially fun for kids.

Page 2 of 2 - “Visitors will be able to act on a green screen and make their own movie that they can take home,” said Ferolo of one of the three interactive events. “They can choose their own background, props, costume and other elements they want in the scene.”

In another area visitors will get to make their own video game using a computer program. And in a third interactive station robots can be programmed to complete a specific challenge.

While the interactive media department always does a year-end project, this will be its most ambitious ever. It’s the first time they’ve taken student work to the public. The level of excitement was high in the department’s computer lab Tuesday afternoon — every computer was occupied as students labored to finish their allotted tasks in the massive group project.

“I’ve always thought that it’s important to stretch them,” said Ferolo. “That’s where growth really occurs.”

Leslie Renken can be reached at 686-3250 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter, @LeslieRenken, and subscribe to her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.